Today, Sun announced their quarterly earnings, and Jonathan blogged about it (http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/). They weren't the greatest in terms of revenue and profit; in fact, revenue was down, and they reported a loss. However, they did something that I predicted they would do in a blog back in August (see here). They broke out their software number as a separate part of their revenue. This is key, because it tells you two things:

1 - Software continues to be a growth area in general; even in an economic slowdown; even for companies recently in decline.

2 - Java can make you a lot of money.

So, pay attention to Sun's Java numbers (see here) and understand the business model.  As a Java developer, it could become very important to your bottom-line, also. 

Happy coding!

-EJB